CAIRO — Saudi Arabia announced on Feb. 8 that the kingdom, along with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), was prepared to send ground troops to Syria to fight alongside the US-led international coalition. This fanned a spark of diplomatic disagreement between Cairo and Riyadh.
Suddenly, without stating any clear justifications or setting another date, Egypt’s Prime Minister Sharif Ismail canceled his Feb. 10 visit to Saudi Arabia. The visit had been scheduled to finalize the Egyptian-Saudi Coordination Council's agreement to make 30 billion riyals ($8 billion) in investments in Egypt, as pledged by Saudi King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud in December. The agreement included filling Egypt's oil needs for five years and supporting Saudi vessel traffic in the Suez Canal. The aid package came after the countries discussed developing military cooperation and the establishment of a joint Arab force.
An Egyptian government official told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “The Egyptian-Saudi Coordination Council meeting was postponed as a result of the failure to reach a final consensus on the nature of the projects presented by Cairo and the proposed financial value to implement these projects.”
The official said the meeting hasn't been rescheduled yet, "but intensive contacts are underway to speed up agreement on investment projects before the end of March 2016." Egypt hopes to reach an agreement when Salman visits Cairo on April 4, he said.
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